The path to greatness
Last year a fascinating article appeared in Fortune Magazine entitled What it takes to be great. To sum up the article’s findings: we don’t possess natural talent, rather the way to become great is through hard work and practise. This is now very well documented, although not necessarily a popular finding since many people would like to think that if they could only find their talent, they would be great and fame and fortune would easily follow. The latter mindset leads to discouragement and heartbreak, causing individuals to waste their time wondering and dreaming rather than investing the time and work that is required to achieve success.
Where do the drive and motivation come from that lead some people to put in the amount of work that it takes to be great? Why are some people such hard workers, while others who may be more brilliant than those busy bees just can’t get motivated to put in the time? The article poses these questions, but does not provide answers since they remain a mystery. Probably an examination of the lives of great achievers would reveal early life circumstances that suggest parallel motivating factors such as extreme poverty, deprivation or other hardship; chance encounters with inspiring individuals who became mentors, or other experiences that sparked a particular interest. Motivation is one thing, since that comes from external factors; persistence and drive to pursue a certain endeavor are another. These will probably eventually be shown to be yet another of the brain’s many biochemical and neurological wonders. I have some ideas about that too.
One of the reasons this has been on my mind is that I just finished reading Lion of Hollywood – the Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer by Scott Eyman. Although other treatments of Mayer's life have presented the man in a rather unfavorable light, Eyman’s biography is much more sympathetic and rightly returns Mayer to his place in history as one of the great executives of the 20th century. Mayer created a motion picture studio that was a symbol of quality and opulence, and one that was considered by many of Hollywood's stars to be the place to work. When he was forced out of MGM by a younger exec in 1951, the place began a steep decline, so much so that Mayer was actually asked to return several years later. He was, however, unable to do so due to declining health.
Mayer’s motivators undoubtedly stemmed from his early years of poverty as a child growing up in Saint John, New Brunswick, where his family had moved from Russia. His father was a junk dealer and the children were put to work at an early age. Mayer’s primary memory of his childhood was of being very hungry. He was nevertheless full of energy and worked very hard (much harder than his rather indolent father). A local tin dealer, John Wilson, befriended the boy and one of the things Mayer always remembered was Wilson’s advice: “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on”. Never, ever give up. Mayer eventually moved to the U.S. and became interested in motion picture distribution, which is where most of the early movie moguls got their start, and this led to a desire to create the movies that were shown in the theatres. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed in 1924. Louis B. Mayer had traveled a very long way from the streets of Saint John to his white leather office in MGM’s Thalberg Building.
It’s clear from reading Eyman’s book that Mayer had tremendous energy, which I’m convinced is another hugely significant factor in an individual’s ability to be great, although it doesn’t explain everything. Charles Darwin, for example, put in long years of toil on the research that led to the publication of his On the Origin of Species in 1859, despite debilitating illness which prevented him working more than a few hours a day, and there are many other examples which I won’t detail here because this essay is already too long! But I'm sure that the more energy you have, the harder you can work. Probably the knowledge that Alfred Russel Wallace was hard at work on the same subject drove Darwin harder.
How does all of this relate to the business and practise of voice over? For those of us already in the business, the motivation is presumably already there. Setting goals provides the infrastructure to keep us on that path to greatness. These goals should include the business side of voice over as well as the use of the voice itself – for the latter, listening to other demos and broadcast commercials and narration, and choosing specific aspects of our own voice-over skills that need improvement and working on them. It helps to write the goals down in the form of daily routines, since it is daily work, not occasional, that will lead to improvement. And not least important is taking care of ourselves, physically, mentally, and spiritually, to keep energy levels high and stress levels low.
That’s my rudimentary theory on greatness and success, a blend of what I've read and what I've made up, with very little of a practical nature (after all, you have other things to do besides sit here and read my ramblings!). I would love to hear your thoughts. Also, your comments on what you do to manage energy and stress would be very welcome and of great interest.
Where do the drive and motivation come from that lead some people to put in the amount of work that it takes to be great? Why are some people such hard workers, while others who may be more brilliant than those busy bees just can’t get motivated to put in the time? The article poses these questions, but does not provide answers since they remain a mystery. Probably an examination of the lives of great achievers would reveal early life circumstances that suggest parallel motivating factors such as extreme poverty, deprivation or other hardship; chance encounters with inspiring individuals who became mentors, or other experiences that sparked a particular interest. Motivation is one thing, since that comes from external factors; persistence and drive to pursue a certain endeavor are another. These will probably eventually be shown to be yet another of the brain’s many biochemical and neurological wonders. I have some ideas about that too.
One of the reasons this has been on my mind is that I just finished reading Lion of Hollywood – the Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer by Scott Eyman. Although other treatments of Mayer's life have presented the man in a rather unfavorable light, Eyman’s biography is much more sympathetic and rightly returns Mayer to his place in history as one of the great executives of the 20th century. Mayer created a motion picture studio that was a symbol of quality and opulence, and one that was considered by many of Hollywood's stars to be the place to work. When he was forced out of MGM by a younger exec in 1951, the place began a steep decline, so much so that Mayer was actually asked to return several years later. He was, however, unable to do so due to declining health.
Mayer’s motivators undoubtedly stemmed from his early years of poverty as a child growing up in Saint John, New Brunswick, where his family had moved from Russia. His father was a junk dealer and the children were put to work at an early age. Mayer’s primary memory of his childhood was of being very hungry. He was nevertheless full of energy and worked very hard (much harder than his rather indolent father). A local tin dealer, John Wilson, befriended the boy and one of the things Mayer always remembered was Wilson’s advice: “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on”. Never, ever give up. Mayer eventually moved to the U.S. and became interested in motion picture distribution, which is where most of the early movie moguls got their start, and this led to a desire to create the movies that were shown in the theatres. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed in 1924. Louis B. Mayer had traveled a very long way from the streets of Saint John to his white leather office in MGM’s Thalberg Building.
It’s clear from reading Eyman’s book that Mayer had tremendous energy, which I’m convinced is another hugely significant factor in an individual’s ability to be great, although it doesn’t explain everything. Charles Darwin, for example, put in long years of toil on the research that led to the publication of his On the Origin of Species in 1859, despite debilitating illness which prevented him working more than a few hours a day, and there are many other examples which I won’t detail here because this essay is already too long! But I'm sure that the more energy you have, the harder you can work. Probably the knowledge that Alfred Russel Wallace was hard at work on the same subject drove Darwin harder.
How does all of this relate to the business and practise of voice over? For those of us already in the business, the motivation is presumably already there. Setting goals provides the infrastructure to keep us on that path to greatness. These goals should include the business side of voice over as well as the use of the voice itself – for the latter, listening to other demos and broadcast commercials and narration, and choosing specific aspects of our own voice-over skills that need improvement and working on them. It helps to write the goals down in the form of daily routines, since it is daily work, not occasional, that will lead to improvement. And not least important is taking care of ourselves, physically, mentally, and spiritually, to keep energy levels high and stress levels low.
That’s my rudimentary theory on greatness and success, a blend of what I've read and what I've made up, with very little of a practical nature (after all, you have other things to do besides sit here and read my ramblings!). I would love to hear your thoughts. Also, your comments on what you do to manage energy and stress would be very welcome and of great interest.
Labels: greatness, voice-over business
posted by MCM Voices at
11:25 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home